Guiding Principle #10:
Contain tourism's land use
Limit high-occupancy resort tourism to concentrated areas. Discourage resort sprawl from taking over coasts, islands, and mountain areas, so as to retain geographical character, a diverse economy, local access, and critical ecosystems.
Tourism-related sprawl and its accompanying environmental impacts including increased traffic, scenic degradation, barriers to local residents, and loss of character is a major hazard of resort regions. Those impacts endanger all the elements that create a distinctive sense of place – a destination’s unique selling point.
In all cases, tourism development should respect cultural landscapes and protect natural habitats that provide the locale’s characteristic scenery and unique ecosystems. Local stakeholders should be consulted to ensure that the development of new tourism facilities and assets take community desires and rights into consideration. Maintaining historic sites, structures, and architecture allows us to tell the unique story of a destination, its greatest tourism asset.
The questions we should ask to further achieve this principle:
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Does development compliment a sense of place?
Further resources:
B(b) Social wellbeing and impacts
B6 Property and user rights
SECTION C: Cultural sustainability
C(a) Protecting cultural heritage
C4 Traditional access SECTION
SECTION D: Environmental sustainability
D(a) Conservation of natural heritage
D1 Protection of sensitive environments